Is Finger Regeneration Possible?

If salamanders can regenerate their limbs, deer their antlers and mice their hearts, then why can't people regenerate a lost limb too? Or can we?

Scientists are looking into it. Cases, such as the one about Lee Spievack from Cincinnati, who restored a finger tip using the extract of pig bladder, has scientists wondering about the possibilities of regeneration.

Whether the extract of pig bladder was the healing ingredient or not is yet to be determined, but the regrown finger tip is there and something made it grow back. This summer, at Fort Sam Houston in San Antonio, scientists plan to test this extract on soldiers who have lost or disabled fingers due to burns.

Extract from a pig's bladder, which has been used on horses to regenerate ligaments, isn't the only thing being tested though. Some scientists are also studying the immediate regenerating process of salamanders and that of the MLR mouse in hopes that one day it may be possible to regenerate amputated or damaged limbs on humans.

What do you think about regeneration? For more information on regeneration see news story here.

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